THE UN-CAMPING TRIP

So, here's the story of this weekend. The plan was to drive up Friday to San Jose and stay the night. Saturday, drive up to Carlotta to attend Scott's friend's wedding. Not was this just a regular 'ol weddin', this was a camping one! We were both so excited for the unique novelty of the event, and not to mention, the marriage itself. Tons of Scott's close friends were going to be there, so needless to say, he was excited to get up there. 

We left right after work on Friday, grabbed a bite to eat when we got to the 5 freeway, and were on our way. Fast forward to around 9 pm when I hear a loud POP. We pull over the car, only to find a tread of our tire coming off. Awesome! So we make it to the closest gas station, 3 or so miles away. We had a terrible time changing the tire to the spare, but finally got it on and were on our way to San Jose, 100 miles away, going 50mph. 2 hours later, we got to our hotel and slept like babies. The next morning, Scott took the car to get the tire fixed. Three NEW tires later, we were ready to go.

But wait, the guy said our brakes were completely shot. No pads at all. So we took care of that next. Keep in mind, we were still 5.5 hours away from our destination with only 3 hours to spare until the wedding festivities began. At this point, we made the decision to count our losses and to not go. I was really sad about how hard it was for Scott to come to this decision. He really wanted to make it work and see his friend get married, but realized that it was near impossible to make it. Not only that, we'd spend all of 10 hours driving back home on Sunday. Disappointment after disappointment, he was - dare I say - disappointed.

Instead of driving right back to Bakersfield, we chose to drive only 40 minutes into San Francisco. I thought for sure that this would brighten his mood and make the day not such of a waste. We went to SF for our honeymoon so it holds a special place in our hearts.

We chose to do some things we hadn't done before in the city. We finally saw the Full House houses. I wasn't the only one nerding out, so I fell a lot better. The view was so awesome at this park! The weather was chilly, but so refreshing. From there, we went down the street to an amazing pizza place in the cutest little part, believe it was called the Hayes Valley district, that I had never been to before.

Patxi's Chicago Pizza, full of goodness. Scott was a happy camper after that meal. We walked around a bit more, and then headed up to Haight-Ashbury. We just drove around a bit and decided it'd be best to drive all the way back home.

Overall, the weekend was full of ups and downs.

I will say that we were so blessed as we didn't get into any accidents with the condition of our car. We found out that another tire was almost at it's bursting point. Had that burst, we would have been in serious danger. We also were able to catch the break situation before the event of needing and it not working. Seriously, praise the Lord.

I'm also so thankful that we could afford the repairs on the fly like that. Not to say that the overall monetary cost was "ok," but we can make it work. 

I am also thankful for my husband and for our marriage. I'm so thankful for the man that he is, and for his beautiful heart. 

Here are a few things I took away from this weekend... As a wife - a wife that acts like a know-it-all, I learned that being right isn't nearly as satisfying as it seems. To say, "I told you so," and then see the effect it has on my husband, makes me immediately regret uttering those words. It doesn't make my point any more valid than it was before, it makes me a nagging wife. A wife that isn't putting him first, a wife that isn't showing him love, a wife that is simply back peddling in our relationship. Nagging really, truly gets you nowhere. The only thing that got us through this weekend was saying we were sorry to each other and choosing to work together and press through. We had no other option other than working on the situation at hand, talking through decisions, and choosing to not dwell on the low parts. I have no other option than to now, replay this weekend again, figure out where I need to step it up, and pray about it. I'm very thankful for this weekend. It's taught me a lot about where I am and where I need to go. 

So there it is, our un-camping weekend. Ladies - go hug your man. Tell him you love him and value him. Work this week on building him up rather than pulling him down.

xoxo